UMass flagship launches $600M fundraising campaign
Published: 09-23-2024 5:50 PM |
AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts is launching a $600 million fundraising campaign to support increased access to high education, investments in cutting-edge research and advancing progress for the common good.
“Accelerate: The Campaign for UMass Amherst,” announced Monday, marks the most ambitious fundraising effort at the flagship campus in the university’s 161-year history, following the UMass Rising campaign that ran from 2010 to 2016 and raised $279 million from more than 103,000 donors.
“This campaign will enable our faculty and students to continue to ask the boldest questions, lean into the most pressing challenges, and expand the boundaries of knowledge through pioneering research, innovation and scholarship,” Chancellor Javier Reyes said in a statement. “Building upon a sustained legacy of excellence, we will fuel the future of UMass Amherst’s leadership across the commonwealth and beyond.”
The campaign is being led the University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation and so far has taken in $452 million from more than 98,000 donors, meaning that more than 75% of the goal is already achieved.
Rolled into the campaign are gifts like the $21.5 million naming gift from the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation to the College of Nursing, the $20 million pledge from Douglas and Diana Berthiaume to the Isenberg School of Management and the $10 million donation from Jerome and Linda Paros to endow the Paros Center for Atmospheric Research.
But the bulk of the campaign’s $600 million goal is expected to come from alumni, parents and friends making contributions in smaller amounts and engaging in supportive volunteer efforts, officials say.
“Every day, our faculty and students are leading change and shaping our world for the better with breakthroughs and innovation in the natural and social sciences, engineering, health care, and computation, as well as in the arts and humanities,” said Provost Fouad Abd-El-Khalick.
“Through this campaign, we seek visionary and passionate partners who will help propel the work of our talented people and amplify their impact globally.”
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The main aims of the campaign are student access and support, including scholarships and fellowships, mentoring and professional development and textbooks and learning materials; initiatives for research, teaching and creative endeavors, such as endowed professorships and faculty chairs and Fine Arts Center artist-in-residence endowments; and initiatives for life-changing impact, including at the libraries and special collections, entrepreneurship incubators and athletics.
This is already happening with the previous large gifts. At the Paros Center for Atmospheric Research, students and faculty conduct high-impact research projects in atmospheric sciences, distributed geophysical sensing, and hazard warning and mitigation as a way to help the United States forecast, plan and respond to climate and weather events.
At the nursing school, the Elaine Nicpon Marieb Charitable Foundation gift is supporting student scholarships, an endowed professorship, the work of the nursing school and mentoring and research initiatives that create access and equity for nursing students from various backgrounds.
The Berthiaumes’ gift, too, is creating endowed faculty positions, endowed doctoral fellowships, a new behavioral research laboratory and expanded faculty research at the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship at Isenberg.
“UMass Amherst provided me a remarkable education which opened doors that led to an extremely successful professional life, so I want to give back,” said Doug Berthiaume, who is among the biggest supporters of the university and co-chaired UMass Rising.
University of Massachusetts Amherst Foundation President Arwen Duffy said the goals of the campaign are ambitious but achievable. “Alumni cherish their ties to the university, carry that pride with them, and bring inspiring energy to serving as ambassadors for UMass Amherst,” Duffy said.
More information about the campaign is at accelerateumass.org.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.